Book Review: Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost and The Adamantium Agenda by C. Soule et al.

Hunt for Wolverine: Weapon Lost written by Charles Soule, art by David Marquez, Paulo Siqueira, and Matteo Buffagni

Wolverine died encased in adamantium (the same metal that makes his bones unbreakable). The X-men had set up a cabin in remote Canada with his remains. A group of desperate villains, the Reavers, find the location and try to steal the encased corpse. The X-men had set up some security and arrive to stop the desecration of Wolverine's grave. The Reavers try to get a little bit DNA so they have something to sell, only to discover the adamantium covering is only a shell--there's no body inside. The X-men had moved his corpse to a grave not far away. When they go to visit the real burial place after the fight, the X-men discover Wolverine's body is gone. Realizing this is a perilous situation, Kitty Pryde organizes several teams to search of the missing body.

One team is headed by Daredevil, who likes a good mystery. He recruits Misty Knight, an ex-cop from New York City with a cybernetic arm, and Frank Magee, an ex-detective from NYC who became an Inhuman when the city got dosed with Terrigen Mist. They start chasing down leads with the help of Cypher, a mutant who can communicate in any language and is addicted to the internet. Cypher finds a lot of online leads about Wolverine's whereabouts, too many for the team to investigate. They start narrowing the list and following up on the most likely leads.

The overall story has an interesting set-up and is spun out over several different series following the various teams (one lead by Iron-man, one by Kitty Pryde). The Weapon Lost story is deliberately noirish in style and provides an interesting investigation. The story is not fully resolved, so I will probably read the other series.

Mildly recommended--this is the middle of a larger narrative arc. I read this before I read Death of Wolverine, so the whole "encased in adamantium" fate was new to me. But I found it intriguing enough to keep going.

Hunt for Wolverine: The Adamantium Agenda written by Charles Soule and Tom Taylor, art by David Marquez, Paulo Siqueira, and R. B. Silva

The team in this book is headed by Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. His investigative group is Spider-man, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. Why those three? A couple of years ago, Tony and those three worked with Wolverine to stop a bomb from destroying Manhattan. Wolverine had made a mysterious deal with  all of them that brings them back together to search for Logan. Tony finds out about a black-market auction that promises the complete DNA of someone from the superhero community. Has the black marketeer has acquired Wolverine's body to monetize it? The group goes off on an adventure to find the sale and bring the seller to justice, hopefully finding out the fate of Wolverine along the way.

The mysterious backstory provides intrigue for readers and motivation for the main characters. I found the tale interesting even though it is not entirely conclusive.

Mildly recommended--this is stronger than the above tale.

Book Review: Daredevil: Back in Black Vol. 2 by C. Soule et al.

Daredevil: Back in Black Volume 2: Supersonic written by Charles Soule and art by Matteo Buffagni, Goran Sudzuka, and Vanesa R. Del Rey

Elektra comes hunting for Daredevil with an outlandish claim--her child has gone missing and she thinks Daredevil is behind the mystery. Daredevil knows nothing about Elektra having a child though the age she is claiming would make it possible that he's the father. The situation is tough to sort out when the aggrieved party is throwing knives and punches as quickly and as skillfully as possible. In the next story, Matt travels incognito to Macau and participates in a Texas Hold'em tournament, though it's more of a way to get in to a high-security hotel to get highly valuable information. Spider-man has come along for the job, providing his usual banter and advice (especially about having a "black supersuit" period). In the third story, the deaf hero Echo goes to a concert where all the fans go nuts...because they are being controlled by Klaw, a former human who is now living sound and trying to convert all of Manhattan into people like him. Echo gets Daredevil to help with the situation.

All three stories are interesting but the Macau one is the best written and most entertaining. The others are good, but not as good. Soule does a great job with Matt's character and his abilities, including his lack of abilities. If you thought, "How can a blind guy play poker?", you are not alone. They make it interesting and manage to get a little character nuance out of the situation. The Elektra story is less convincing but the art is really good, with a noir-ish use of minimal colors and high contrasts. The music story tries to throw in a lot of visuals that represent the music but it makes the images more chaotic. The effort was good but the results were underwhelming.

Recommended overall.